Thing 9

What do you like or dislike about YouTube? Did you find videos that would be useful for teaching and learning? Is YouTube banned in your building?

I love YouTube. Talking, not as a teacher, but a computer user. I love the freedom of expression and creativity that YouTube offers. The twisted searches you can take- how one video links to another, which links to another, etc.... I love the absolutely beautiful amateur videos I have seen there. I have laughed and cried and become angry. Very few sites on the Internet have evoked such emotional responses from me.

Of course there are a lot of amazing videos on YouTube that are useful for teaching and learning. I teach Media Literacy so YouTube is a great resource for commercials. Our grade level did an interdisciplinary election unit and YouTube was a great resource for debate clips, interviews, and political ads.

Unfortunately, YouTube is banned with a capital "B" in our district. I have tried several ways to get around it for my classroom but no one will bend on this point. I have been using TeacherTube instead. TeacherTube though doesn't have the breadth of resources that YouTube offers. I understand the reasons why YouTube was banned, but think that it should be available for teachers to use for educational purposes. I cannot figure out how to download, copy, or get a YouTube video on another source so that I can play it at school... any suggestions?